This is my life

This is my life. It's a phrase that since around August 20th of 2010 I've been repeating in my head. I say it to myself when something good is happening, and I just give myself a second to pause, take in the moment and then just let it take me over. In this moment I usually end up looking like a crazy woman just smiling for no apparent reason. Luckily for me though I have a few "this is my life" moments recently.
Thursday night was our friend Giselle's birthday. She's from Spain, and rented out something that appeared to be a basement of a home. I'm not quite sure how that works. But anyways, she's in my Spanish Literature class and there were a bunch of other kids at the party that are in that class with me, so it was nice to actually get to meet and talk to them. The only problem was that a lot of them are English majors, and spoke English really well and wanted to practice. So a lot of the time they would be talking to me in English and I'd be speaking in Spanish, but hey, in the end we were able to communicate and practice the languages we wanted! Before I get more into the night though I should start at the beginning. So we had class until 6:00, but we still hadn't bought Giselle a present. Nora, Kelsey and I were put in charge of the gift so we got her a American cookbook written in Spanish, a shirt and earrings. We then headed back to our houses to get ready so that we could meet at the bus station at 8:30.

Now given the Spanish "party-schedule" this was possibly the earliest that I had gotten ready. I kind of felt like I was back in America! Of course people ended up running late and we finally got to the bus station around 8:45. Giselle lives outside of the city, so we needed to catch a specific bus, but when we got there we realized that we had about half an hour until the bus was coming. We were all starving though, so we decided to go the cafeteria in the bus station. Now just imagine the six of us walking in, all dressed up and made up. Heels and dresses, lookin' fine. I'm pretty sure the workers and the few other people in there were very confused as to why we were eating there. We knew that there would be some food at Giselle's so we all just decided to get a piece of tortilla (if you are a loyal reader to the blog, you should know what this is, but let me remind you again with this link). Unfortunately, this was legitimately the WORST tortilla I have ever had. I mean, I've never actually made tortilla, but it seems pretty hard to mess up that bad. It's fried potatoes and eggs. Somehow though the bus station cafeteria managed to screw it up. It was hard, rubbery, flavorless, hard. Even the bread was bad. That being said, I think we all finished ours anyway. Beggars can't be choosers right!
After eating we got onto the bus, where all we knew was that we had to get off at the stop right after the bridge. We had no idea what bridge this was, or when it would appear, so we were basically just staring out of the windows, being obnoxious and yelling out "Was that a bridge??" "Nope! No bridge yet" "I THINK I SEE A BRIDGE!" Eventually we did see a bridge so we got off and called Giselle who was going to pick us up at the bus stop. There were about 15 people there, and the 6 of us were all relieved to see that there was still food there, including tortilla that Giselle's dad had made. Aka- 10 times better than bus station tortilla. The only bad thing with all the food just sitting there is that when you're drinking, and inhibitions start to go, that food just starts to look and taste more appealing.

Eyes closed, or super-asian?

The party was so fun though. There was great music playing out of a speaker system from homemade mix-tapes, and therefore tons of dancing too! We knew a couple people there already, but it was great to talk and meet other students who are in me and James' literature class.
Unfortunately, Arinelli actually had a test/quiz (a quest!) the next morning, so she left and Kelsey accompanied her back to Coruña.
The party ended soon after and James, Nora, Elena and I took a taxi back into Coruña to where the bars/clubs are. I had a 10:00 class though that morning, so by 3:00 AM I was pretty tired, and had sobered up pretty quick, so I was ready to go home. Nora and I walked home, and although my feet were killing me from my heels and I was exhausted, I still managed to have a "this is my life" moment. It was a gorgeous night out, and had had such a fun time at Giselle's party.
I don't have classes on Fridays this semester so I just had a relaxing morning and caught up on some TV shows. It was a really nice day though so I went with Nora to the post-office and then we went for a walk before lunch. Later that afternoon though, Nora, Kelsey and I had a spa appointment. Yes, you heard me right. SPA. I am most definitely my mother's daughter.
We had booked it a couple days before and we decided to do a "spa circuit" and then each get an hour long massage. The spa circuit was really cool with crazy showers, a sauna, and a huge hot tub. The funniest part though was one of the showers called the "chorro jet". It basically consisted of a woman shooting water out of a fireman's hose at your back. She did it in a way though that the strong pressure of it made it a massage, but it definitely took a little getting used to. I also had to hold back my laughter when my hair started hitting me in my face when she was shooting the water at my shoulder. The spa circuit ended in this giant hot tub, more like a pool with hot water. The three of us just got to swim around, lay on the "bubble loungers" and relax in there for about 20 minutes. After that was massage time! The massage felt so nice, and was so relaxing. Let me just say though that the masseuse saw A LOT of my body, a lot more than one in the United States would see, for sure! I decided to stay in my relaxed mode Friday night, and we all just stayed in and relaxed at home. On Saturday Kelsey and I went for a run, and then the 4 of us here went to Caffe Vecchio and got frappes. We all went out to botellon that night, and then Nora, James, and I stayed out a little later drinking, dancing, and just having a good time.
This should be a pretty good week too. We don't have our Holy Cross class this week, so on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon I'm free, and then I'm leaving for Madrid on Thursday to see my parents! Yayy! Hope everyone has a good week too. Love you all <3

Leon

So this weekend James and I headed to Leon, Spain where our friends Emily and Andy are studying for the year. Kelsey and Nora also joined us for the 5 hour bus ride (yes, you read that correctly, 5 hours) but they went to a ski-resort about 45 minutes away for most of the weekend.

Leon is a smaller city located in the region of Castilla-Leon (here is a link to a map with all of the regions, I'm in Galicia). Compared to Galicia, which is it's own very strong culture and distinct vibe, Leon is very much a typical, interior Spanish city. It was fun to walk through the quiet cobblestone streets, and check out the old architecture. Although Coruña is by no means a big city, I can understand why Emily and Andy were looking around our city as if it was NYC when they came to visit. While Coruña always seems to be bustling with people walking, talking, shopping and eating, Leon just seemed calmer. They do have a gorgeous, and huge cathedral that we were able to see. We also were able to go up it, and learn all about the stained glass restoration that they've been doing.
That being said, the Leoneses (the people of León) sure do come out at night, for the WONDERFUL system of tapas. Let me just pause here for a second and address some comments I've received about the focus that I often put on food in my blog posts. While my mom claims that I may be developing a food obsession, I beg to differ. I believe that the food of different countries can teach a lot about different cultures. I also think that food is something that can always bring people together. No matter what language you speak or where you're from, as humans we need food to survive. Thankfully, throughout my travels I'm not eating for pure survival, so I get to enjoy everything that I try, and in the end isn't that what you people want to hear about? The fun, the enjoyment, and my ever expanding knowledge of different cultures? Well, you've got it in food. Maybe I should rename this blog to: Kristen's European Eating Adventure. Nahh. That makes me sound obese.

morcilla

Okay, I digress to TAPAS. So most of you out there must be a little confused. Don't they have tapas everywhere in Spain? Hasn't she talked about getting tapas in Coruña? Yes and yes. What makes León different? They're free. That's right, you don't pay any extra for them. So here's how it works, every bar in León has there own specialty tapa. So you go to the bar, give your money to a friend who's in charge of ordering, get small beer, wine, or beer/lemon-soda mix (more on that one later, it's delish though) for one euro, and then wait for the friend to hand you your drink and bring back a plate of food! The tapas that we got were this ham/fat/onion mixture (ehh, it got better from there), chicken wings and chorizo tapa similar to pigs in a blanket, a platter with a piece of sausage, chorizo, ham and cheese for each person, and last but not, morcilla. So what is that dish called morcilla, that frankly looks like poop spread onto bread? Well no worries, it's MUCH less gross, it's a paste made out of blood sausage! So a lesson that I've learned from studying abroad? I am definitely an adventurous eater. It pays off too, because the morcilla was actually delicious, it tasted kind of like chili. After tapas we went out to a bar which was offering free beer until 1 AM. Unfortunately, the lesson learned that nothing that comes free is ever good. I don't even know how to describe the taste, and even worst aftertaste of that beer. We were tired from our early wake up call, and long bus ride though, so we headed back to the apartment soon after.
James had decided to stay out with his boys (Andy and Dan) so Emily, her welsh friend also named Emily, and I went back and decided to watch glee. I legitimately fell asleep within 15 minutes, and Emily was out pretty quick too. However, we were roused from our peaceful slumber by our 3rd roommate, James. We learned that James snores. We also learned that he'll stop snoring for 5-10 minutes if you hit him. Therefore, we were awake most of the night, hitting him every 20 minutes or so.

The next morning we met up with Andy and walked around. The welsh roommate, Emily, was going to cook dinner, but we were in charge of going to the outdoors farmers market and getting the vegetables. It was really fun to walk around the farmers market since there's nothing like that in Coruña. I got an apple for breakfast, and we found everything we needed for the vegetable dish. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, and we ended up getting sucked in to watching about 8 episodes of Pimp My Ride in a row. The best was when a girl named Spechelle got her car "pimped". Yes, her name is pronounced special. Ohhh America. Emily then cooked us a chicken curry dish which was delicious, but probably the spiciest thing I've ever tasted. A bunch of European students who are part of the ERASMUS program (a huge, solely European student exchange program) came over for a little party before going out. However, Emily and I were both exhausted, so when everyone else was getting ready to head out, we decided to be lame and just stay in. Even though we felt bad, we were able to bond for the 30 more minutes that we were awake for.
It was so nice to see León, and even better to be able to spend time with Emily, Andy, and Dan. I'm really excited because Andy and Dan will be here next Sunday for a few hours. Given that Holy Cross is completely integrated with the Erasmus program in León, they get tons of free trips (so jealous, so unfair) and next week they're going to Porto, Santiago de Compostela, and then Coruña to see the Torre de Hercules. James' host mom said that there's a good octopus restaurant up there, so we're gonna try and find it and bring them there.

In other news, on Monday I made a bank account and joined the gym! It feels so nice to be exercising! Today though Elena and I decided to be bold and take a class. So we decided to "Step, level 2". There wasn't a level 1 at the time, and we're both in decent shape so we figured we'd be fine. We failed to think through the fact though that everyone who was in level 2, had probably done level 1, and therefore new all the moves. To say that we were uncoordinated would be an understatement. There was clearly an ex-semipro dancer next to me, who was flying in the air, pointing his toes, while simultaneously doing jazz hands. Me on the other hand, decided to eliminate any spin/turn that everyone else was doing, and almost ran into the people in front of me, behind me, and to the left and right. We looked like walruses in a room of dolphins. Regardless, it was a good workout. We might try level 1 though next time.
Shout out to my friends in León! Thanks to Emily, Debs, and Martin for letting us take over their apartment and more thanks to Andy, Emily, and Dan for spending time with us, showing us around their city, and bringing us for tapas!

A reflection on friendship

Photography by Kelsey Cappeta

So these are 4 of the 5 girls in Coruña, and missing out one boy, James. Every time I look at pictures like these I can't help but note the diversity of our group. We've talked about this a lot between us, and even though it's sometimes a strange combination, I love it. So let me give you the quick run down of everyone here. I probably should have done this earlier in the year, but at least I now know everyone well, and can give a good description.

So let's start with the most important, me! Just kidding, and hopefully everyone who's reading this knows about me (creepers can press that red X button right now). So, I am half Chinese, half Swedish and hailing from the great state of Connecticut. I went to public school all my life until HC, where I study Psychology and will be adding Spanish as a second major next year.

Second in our "beauty pageant" picture is Nora. She's our midwest gal from Evanston, IL right outside of Chicago. Like me, her major is Psychology, but she also has a peace and conflicts concentration. We both took Social Psychology last semester, so it was really good to get to know her while trying to understand what was going on in that class. We also wrote two 20 page papers together in spanish. Now if that's not teamwork, I don't know what is! I don't think she's done that much traveling in the past (besides going from Chicago to Worcester) and you can already tell how much more independent she's become from this experience. She's also writing a blog about her year here.

Next we have Elena here! Elena actually lives legitimately across the street from me, and living with families with young children we're able to share and understand stories. She's also usually my Sunday lunch date, like today! She's from Westchester, NY and is a born and bread Italian. Her parents both immigrated from Calabria, and she speak Italian fluently. It's fun listening to her talk about the giant quantities of food that her mom makes for every dinner, and stories of her summers in Italy. Her childhood was also really different from mine given that she's the youngest of three, with two older brothers who are 20 and 16 years older than her. She already has 7 nieces and nephews!

The last girl in our picture taken in Pontevedra is Arinelli, from Lawrence, MA aka The Mini Dominican Republic. She's told us that all of the signs in Lawrence are in Spanish, there were less than 15 white people in her high school, and that basically everyone there is Dominican. Both of her parents were born in the Domincan Republic, therefore Spanish was her first language and what she speaks at home. She also spends most of her summers hanging out at the beach at her house in DR. Although she might not have the same language issues as the rest of us, she's dealing with a whole other challenge, because she's the only one here with a boyfriend. Even though Ari and I had a Spanish class together first semester of freshman year, we never hung out or talked to each other about anything other than class. We now marvel at the fact that I've had her phone number in my contacts for the past 2 years though, yet never got to know each other.

Kelsey is our athlete! She's from New Hampshire, and joined one of the (surprisingly) very few female soccer teams in Coruña. She's one of five kids, which obviously leads to a very different childhood than mine with just one little brother. She's also very independent and a traveling extraordinaire. We took colloquial Spanish together, and I was able to see what a true planner and perfect student is like. I should probably never leave her side, and just do everything that she does when it comes to school. She's always on top of her work, and plans everything out perfectly. I mean, that sounds just like me, right?

Last, but never least, we have James! Or as we affectionately call him, Jaime. Or Jaims. James is from Lon Gisland. By that I mean Long Island. He's the one guy here, so we have to give him some credit for constantly being around all of this estrogen. James' family is full blown Croatian. Like they've spent a good amount of their summers in the little village that his family is from. He also has a good amount of stories such as ham legs hanging in the basement, singing in a croatian rock band, and playing special hand games.




Well the point of this post was to note at our diversity, and the unfortunate fact that had we all been at Holy Cross this year, most of us probably would not have been friends. I only met James once in my two years at HC, and that was after we found out that we were going to Coruña together. Elena and I had talked before since she knew my best friend Claire, but in the end we had different groups of friends. Truer words have never been said before when it comes to Arinelli, who's group of friends consists of almost all Dominicans. It's unfortunate that for all of those barriers preventing people from becoming close to people outside of their friend groups, you really do have to isolate them. I noticed this when I went to Appalachia last year for spring break, and I'm noting it again here. Everyone is so fixed in there ways at Holy Cross, that it's only when things get shaken up, and you're forced to get to know people that close bonds can really be made.
Now I know that this sounds really dramatic, but I am just so happy with the relationships that I've made this year. It's given me an opportunity to meet new people, listen to new stories, and learn about so many new cultures. After constantly spending so much time together here, it'll be interesting to see how it'll be at Holy Cross next year, when we're back with our friends from freshman and sophomore year. I'm positive that these bonds and friendships won't just disappear, but given that we'll have more than 5 other people that know our language and want to hang out with us, things will be different!
I hope everyone has enjoyed learning about the crew over here in Coruña! One last thing, a shoutout to my mom: may your lucky fleece blanket work it's magical packer powers tonight, and:

Go Pack Go!!!!!

Back to the grind

So new classes have started this week, and I can't help but be amazed at the lack of organization. Now while the University can certainly take some blame, our program is just very different from what all of the other Spanish students are doing, that it inevitably makes things trickier. The issue is that students here are put on a track of classes from day 1. They are enrolled in a certain "facultad" like law, business, sociology, education, etc... and then from there they choose their (what we would call) major. Except they don't get to choose their classes, once they pick their major, all of their classes are fixed for every year of their dgree, and they're split into groups and given their pre-made schedules. And then we come marching in. Holy Cross lovin', liberal arts degree totin', english speaking Americans. I'm taking a class in the first year of the English philology major (which is actually a computer class), another in the second year of the Spanish literature major, and then a class in the first year of the sociology department.

The architecture of UDC is a little different than Holy Cross

The problem then comes because unlike every other Spanish student, we have classes that don't fit together perfectly like tetris pieces. Our courses are sometimes at the same time, or the two facultads organize their schedules in different time blocks, so I'll find courses but they end up overlapping. The other issues is that most of the classes are broken into one "complete group" and one "small group" every week. While this format is nice because it allows a little bit more personalized attention, it definitely makes scheduling more difficult. There was a sociology class that I wanted to take, but only one of the small groups fit into my schedule, unfortunately, when I went to the complete group yesterday I was informed that they had eliminated that one small group. It was frustrating, but I think everything has worked out. As of right now my courses are a computer communications class, contemporary political and social history, continuing my year long Spanish literature class, and our Spanish class with just the 4 other Holy Cross students (Arinelli isn't it in since she's a native speaker).

Another European adventure to come!

The good news about my schedule though is that I don't have classes on Fridays, which means it should make traveling easier! I already have a good amount of plans that I'm looking forward to. I'll be visiting my friends Andy, Emily and Dan who are all in León for the year. Andy and Emily were the ones who came to visit earlier this year, so it'll be really great to see them and explore another small Spanish city. Two weekends after that my parents are coming to Madrid, and I'll be meeting them there. I'm leaving Thursday night and then coming back Monday night so I'll have a good amount of time with them. As of right now March looks pretty free. Hopefully my friend Audrey will be coming to visit me near the end, and then we'll be flying to Barcelona together to see Claire (who I visited in Strasbourg, France). She's going with some other girls from Strasbourg, and they're all meeting other friends who are studying abroad there, so it should be a fun time to meet new people and swap stories.
In April we get a week long break, which happens to start on my birthday, April 15th! Although I haven't bought any tickets yet, I plan on going to Scotland and Ireland. I've never been to either of the places, and given that I have friends in both, I think that should be fun! Unfortunately, just looking for flights has been stressful. I guess Spanish people must not go up there that often because it is both expensive and time consuming. This is when a private jet would come in handy.
I hope everything is going well, and people are staying warm and safe over there in New England. All I hear about is cold and snow, cold and snow. Good news is that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, which means that Spring is near! Just hold on a little longer!
Also a couple shout-outs to Mr. Alex Lucyk and Ms. Kristin Jednorowicz. I had some skype sessions with them the other day, and while despite living in Spain, I contend my life is very boring, it was so nice to see and talk with them!
I love you all!

A Weekend in Porto

Well, let me first say that for a weekend trip, Porto has a HANDFUL of fun travel stories and memories. Everyone knows about Lisbon, but we decided to head to Porto because it was both easier and cheaper for us to get there, and I'm so happy that we did. My travel book described the three main cities in Portugal saying that Braga prays, Lisbon shows off, and Porto works. Although I've obviously only seen Porto, I think that the book has a pretty accurate description. Porto is an old city, with so much character, and although they have the tour busses, and super touristy antique trains (what tacky American tourists would ever take that...) it's clear that tourism is not what defines Porto. For lack of a better description, it just seemed like a very real city. A quick note before describing the weekend, I forgot my camera in Coruña, so any picture you see has been taken from google image, or maybe a friend's album on facebook.

Our means of transportation to Porto was by coach bus on Friday morning. We had already bought our round-trip tickets earlier in the week, so all we had to do was get to the station before the bus pulled out at 9:30. Elena and I met up early to grab some raisin bread and coffee, and headed to the local bus stop which would then bring us to the bus station. We were calling James and Arinelli to make sure that they were awake. We had all gone out the night before, but those two had decided to stay out later than Elena and I. Finally we were able to get a hold of Arinelli and she said to go ahead, and she would take a taxi there. James never picked up, and by the time we were boarding onto the coach bus we had logged about 10 missed calls to him.
Around noontime I got a text saying, F*** I'm stupid, and a question about when he could catch another bus. Luckily there was another bus on Saturday, but he had to buy another ticket. Anyways, back to our ride down! The trip was pretty long, about 5 hours sitting on the bus. I had a surreal moment when a movie came onto the TV near the end of the ride. We were in Portugal, had just left Spain a few hours ago, watching a Jackie Chan movie in English, with Portuguese subtitles. A strange mix of things to take in for sure. The bus ride was long, but it was pretty to see the country-side. That is of course when I wasn't sleeping.
We finally got into Porto, and I had read on the hostel website that to get there we should take Bus Line 200 to Plaza de Libertad. So we got to the bus stop, and got onto bus 200. We were watching the entire time for the stop, until we realized that we had got to the end of the line. In a mix of Spanish and English we asked the Portuguese bus driver if we were near the Plaza. He basically gave us that "oh boy" look, and told us that it was in the center of town and that we should get off the bus and then get back on when it heads back. So we did just that, and kept our eyes out for the stop that we needed. Next thing we know, we see the words "fim da linea." Translation? End of the line. Turns out that Plaza de Libertad isn't a stop on bus line 200! So we had spent a good hour riding the ENTIRE bus line. We then just hailed a taxi, and 5 euros later we were there.

I had been in charge of finding and booking the hostel, and the website made it look really nice so I was excited to see it. Thankfully the pictures weren't deceiving! It was an old restored house, with beautiful hardwood floors, and the entire place was kept really clean. It was also family run, and everyone who worked there was really friendly and helpful. We dropped our stuff off, and asked the girl at the front desk where we could go to get food. We followed her directions and found ourselves in this hole in the wall place on a small side street. The only choice we could make was whether we wanted pork or fish, and we ended up being two and two. There was no written menu, so we had no idea how much it would cost, but we were all hungry so we just went with it. Three of us got a delicious soup, and quickly ate up the bread that the waiter/owner/man with a HUGE mustache put on the table for us. Our main dishes came which consisted of a huge platter of a pork chop/2 pieces of fish, french fries, and rice. We also got a jug of wine which provided us each about delicious 2.5 glasses. So how much did this feast cost us? 19 euros (aka $25) for the four of us. That delicious jug of wine that we were all raving about? 1 euro. 25 cents each. Crazy! We walked around a little bit more, but I wasn't feeling very well so we then decided to head back to the hostel and take a little nap. We all got up around 8 and then decided to walk around more before heading to dinner! We walked down the river, and checked out that area before decided on a restaurant. They had seating outside with blankets on all the chairs, and those big space heaters. The food was delicious, I had steak with some mushroom/tomato sauce on top, or something like that. It was a little pricey, but given the ambiance, and being that it was our first night there, it was worth it.
That night when we got back to the hostel we met our two roommates, a couple from Canada. They had just graduated from Grad School and were doing 6 months of just exploring. They had no real plan of where to go, how to get there or where to stay, they were just doing quintessential backpacking. They both seemed really sweet too, so we didn't have to deal with anything to sketchy. Before going to bed the girl told us that she's been told that she sleep talks, which I didn't really think to be a big problem. I told her that it would make things more exciting. Little did I know that when this girl said sleep talk, she meant 5 minute, full on coherent conversations in both French and English, about every hour. She also shouted. A lot. I somehow still managed to get some sleep though.
The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel since they offer free breakfast. It was the same delicious chocolate cereal that the Amsterdam hostel had, plus they had bread, jam, butter, coffee and tea. We then headed off to the tourist office where we bought a package deal of  the train with the guided tour that goes around the city of porto, and access into a port wine house. Let's just say that the train ride was a bit of a letdown. It was SO bumpy, like shoulda taken a dramamine bumpy, and not very informative. After getting off that we all took a deep breath, and thanked God that it wasn't much longer, or else we might have all started vomiting. We then made our way down the city, and crossed the bridge to the other side of the river where all of the wine houses were. We got to the one that we had bought the ticket for, and were given a free tasting glass of white port wine. I wasn't really a fan give that it was so sweet, and it seemed like a high alcohol content. We then took a tour of the wine "caves" where the tour guide only spoke Portuguese. That was interesting. We got every few words, and a phrase every now and then.
After the tasting we decided to explore that side of the river. There were tons of wine houses or "bodegas" lined up along the river, and up in the neighborhoods too. We then set off on a mission to find lunch. I really wanted to try a sandwich that I saw was typical of Porto called a francesinha which is a sandwich with steak, ham, and a spicy sausage covered in melted cheese, with a fried egg on top, and drenched in a tomato sauce. I'm obviously a health-food freak you know. Anyways, the sandwich was delicious, and I may or may not have finished the entire thing.
At this point James had arrived, and he had wanted to do some wine tasting. Kelsey and Arinelli decided to go walk around and take some pictures, so Elena and I went with James. We decided to go into this place that claimed to be the oldest port house in Porto. They didn't have any tours or anything, just tasting, but that was fine with us. Since I wasn't a big fan of the port wine, I just decided to try 2 different white wines. Elena tried a red and a white, and James got 3 different port wines. Little did we know that this "testing" consisted of full glasses of wine. Not just a little droplet to put on your tongue and then spit out. I'm not saying we were complaining... just surprised. The tasting also consisted of giving us chocolate too, and I am not exaggerating when I say that it might have been the best chocolate ever. Mmm. SO good!

After that we were sufficiently stuffed, so we decided to keep walking and exploring the city. It was fun to walk by the river, and just all hang out together. While there might not be any super-famous sites to see in Porto, it's a beautiful city to just explore around. After walking around for a few hours, we headed back to the hostel just to relax. James, Kelsey and I played a couple riveting games of Uno. After hanging around for a bit we started to talk about what we wanted to do for dinner. James really wanted to eat at a restaurant on the river like we had the night before, since he hadn't been, so we agreed on that. We went to a different spot but the food was just as good. The only annoying thing was that they put appetizers on our table as soon as we sat down, only to find out when we received our bill that we had been charged for them. So that added on an unexpected 6 euros. After dinner we headed to a bar where we all got a beer. The Porto nightlife just wasn't like Spain, and we ended up calling it a pretty early night and heading back to the hostel. The next morning we packed up, and did a little exploring near the bus station, and then loaded onto the coach bus and settled in for the 5 hour drive. It was a really fun and relaxing trip. Portugal had a great vibe, and hopefully I'll be able to check out Lisbon before the years over!
Spanish word of the post: Albondigas = meatballs! This may seem like a random word to teach you, but there's a little story behind it. The word for thank you in Portuguese is obrigada. At one point during the trip Elena turned to me and asked what the word for thank you was, because all she could think was albondigas. We then continued to say albondigas at every point where you would say thank you. We also imagined someone just saying "Oh meatballs, meatballs so much!!" in English. Clearly we're very easily amused!
Sorry this post was so long! Ones about trips always turn into mini-novels. Shorter life-updates are to come!!